Twisted
by The Sky In A Cage Is Too Tiny
Summary: I was born with a twisted leg. My only friend is Longears. I am scorned by my Clanmates, and my leg holds me back in many things. Although, what can you do when you're a warrior swimming the sun-drown-place, which we now know as the sea? What about on land the rest of your life? My name is Twistedheart, and this is my story. *Rated T for getting really depressing*
1. Chapter 1

_Prologue: Fallen River.  
I was there when it happened.  
I was there when the twolegs found us after they had destroyed our home around the lake; driving us to the sun-drown place.  
RiverClan and part of ThunderClan had been scouting out a different route. Well, to be precise, as many safe routes we could find to safety.  
A boat of twolegs stopped moving in the water nearby.  
They came ashore with smaller boats, and managed to catch all of us.  
I ran with my closest friend, Snowheart, beside me, yet we too were caught.  
My name is Bentleg, and this is the story of the Great Return. My great-granddaughter is also crippled; yet is as brave as I. Let this race begin._


	2. Slipping Ice

As I lay down on the cool ice, I realized something was wrong. Horribly wrong.  
The ice seemed to be tilting beneath me, and it was damp. I could see water swirling inside the ice. It was melting.  
"Longears!" I called to my only friend. "Come look at the ice over here!"  
The red-and-ginger she-cat walked over, and froze when she saw what was happening.  
"We have to tell Lightstar." Longears said seriously.  
"We can't!" I protested. "He's never believe us! We're only young warriors!"  
"Alright." Longears said reluctantly. "But I still might tell him later."  
I nodded and turned around; heading towards the crevice where I've slept since I was an apprentice.  
There is only one specific den in our Iceberg. The nursery. Everyone else just sleeps where they want, usually with a friend.  
The pile of fish scales, chips of ice, and a bit of skin from a dolphin that had ended up on the flat part of the Iceberg formed my nest.  
I fell alsleep as the sun sank completely over the horizon, hardly noticing Longears slipping into her own nest-which was exactly the same as mine-beside me.  
I woke to a jolt a groan. I realized that my fur was wet and ice was falling down in small bits onto my back.  
I leaped out of the den, to see that Longears was standing with half of the Clan near the edge of the Iceberg.  
I ran over to her; my twisted leg scraping the ice, causing it to bleed. I didn't notice. The twisted part of my leg had never had any feeling in it.  
"What's happening?" I asked the medicine cat, Cloudfur. She was a blue-gray she-cat with icy blue eyes. She was one of the most beautiful cat's in the Clan.  
"The ice is melting." She said, her usually calm voice was high-pitched with fear. "We'll either drown or swim to land."  
There was a massive groan, and the ice tilted. I yowled with fear as the water surged up to my chest.  
"Swim! Swim if you value your lives!" Lightstar yowled as the ice beneath my feet dropped away. I struggled to swim in the freezing water, my eyes stung with the salt that had gotten stuck in them.  
I managed to keep myself afloat-but I saw Lightningkit sink beneath the surface.  
I took a deep breath, and dove under the water.  
I could only see dimly underwater-but I could see enough in the darkness to realize the Lightningkit was sinking-and fast.  
I pulled myself through the water towards the kit, silently thanking StarClan that I was able to move my twisted leg.  
I sank my teeth into the young kit's scruff. He went limp, recognizing the feeling of my crooked gait underwater.  
I surfaced, only barely able to breath. I realized that the Clan was still gettting itself organized.  
"T-T-T-Twistedheart!" Longears gasped. I could see the ice forming on her ears. "You got Lightningkit!"  
I nodded mutely, unable to speak because of the kit shivering in my grasp.  
Cloudfur swam over, taking Lightningkit from my mouth and swinging him onto her back.  
The old she-cat grinning weakly.  
"I know how to do that because I remember when RiverClan had to leap free of the den in the Boat that had taken us. I was only an apprentice, but I had to carry Lightstar, who had only been born the day before." She said, and again I was struck by her age. She remembered that day, fifteen snow-seasons ago, before even her mother was born. I was shocked once again by how long Cloudfur had survived.  
I tried to say something, but my teeth were chattering too much.  
Lightstar yowled a command. He commanded us to swim as far as we could, or until the sun rose and we found an Iceberg that was completely frozen.  
Little did we know how long that would take.  
We swam the night through, and then the day faded and we were still in the water. Finally, in the middle of the night we found a tiny, brown, soft patch of ice. Cloudfur calls an island. She says that the brown is dirt, and that the huge brown thing in the middle is a tree.  
I am shocked by the color of the Sky-Lights in the ground. Cloudfur calls it "Weeds".  
The sun rose. Lightningkit had frozen to death in the night.  
We buried him on the island with only a pile of weeds to mark the spot. We might of well have thrown his body in the sea.  
I swam, slowly but surely with my clan mates around me, the waves tossing us back and forth. To and fro. Yet we remained swimming in a straight line.  
We saw a green line in the distance. Cloudfur shouted what we all hoped.  
"Land!"  
It was farther than we thought.  
We swam for three days without rest, food, and only foul-tasting salt water to drink.  
The water grew steadily more shallow, the waves weaker, and rocks more frequent.  
But we were constantly diving to avoid boats.  
We knew that we were in serious danger.  
We had already lost a kit, and now we were nearing shore, but Cloudfur, Longears, and Littlefeet were feeling weak. I myself felt a bit weak. I was exhausted. I had been since Lightingkit died. My legs pulled mysef weakly through the water; my paws lacking feeling, and my legs weak and heavy. Salt was embedded in my legs, patches of fur were either thin or missing. Most of the clan was this way. Amazingly, the only apprentice, Fallpaw, was fine.  
At long last, we pulled ourselves onto land; at the foot of a cliff.  
We spent the night there, exhausted, weak, and battered.  
I was the last one to sleep.  
The sun was a ball of flame; turned the sky into streaks of red, purple, pink, and orange, making it seem as if the entire sky was on fire, or perhaps the ripples in a river, caused by the dropping of a stone into it, or maybe a drop of rainwater, or perhaps even just what I saw; the sun setting over the now scarlet, now blue, now green sea, filled with the sorrows and love of life.  
I lay on the ground, my brown and yellow fur turned white with the pure...sand, as Cloudfur told us weakly before she lay to go to sleep.  
As I drifted off into the world of dreams, a lone beam of light penetrated my eyelids, then I fell into peaceful dreams of playing on the ice or swimming below; finding twisting tunnels leading to frozen caves.  
But my peaceful dreaming turned into a masma of pain, fear, darkness, defeat, and ice melting into sharp, orange beams of pain. My fur was caught alight.  
I woke into reality knowing that my fate was of oppisites from where I was born.  
Fire, ice.  
It's all the same in gray.


	3. Burning Sun and Flickering Sand

I watched as Twistedheart struggled to her feet. She looked bedraggled, filthy, and exhausted.  
Somehow I still felt cheerful, awake, and felt fine enough to lick most of the salt out of my fur.  
"Morning, Twistedheart." I said cheerfully to my battered mentor. "How're you feeling?"  
"Not so good." Twistedheart responded. "You?"  
"I'm feeling fine." I said with my lopsided grin.  
"I think we'll be walking all day." Twistedheart said, sighing. "I wish we could stay here for a while."  
I nodded slowly, somehow alright with the prospect.

Just then, a yowl came so loud that it nearly split my head in two.

"Cloudfur! Cloudfur's dead!"

I stood back, not wanting to interfere.

They placed her body in the sea, as is custom. I watched as the waves pulled her body away.

That was when the darkness came-overwhelming and fearful.

For a moment, I was as submerged in darkness as I had been submerged in water when I learned how to swim.

And then there was the light of the morning sun, the beaming rays of light reflecting off the sand, the high, jagged cliffs behind us, and the water, creating a rainbow arching through the sharp, painfully blue sky.

Yet I didn't want to see it. I didn't want to be hot.

I wanted the ice. I wanted the freezing wind. And I wanted home.

Home is lost forever. Lost forever in my eyes.

I looked at the blinding sun, flinching and turning my eyes away from the fire.

"We will rest all day and go onward in the dead of night."

That was our leader, giving out commands.

I went back to sleep-I couldn't possible care less about staying awake. I wished I could sleep forever in beautiful dreams.


End file.
